CHAPTER XXI
A GIRL LEAVES SCHOOL
The next morning, during school hours, Mrs. Rhodes and Mrs. Henry Rhodessearched Laura's room. There was nothing in it that did not belong toeither Laura or her roommate Victoria Webster. Under the cover on thedresser top they found Laura's trunk key and carried it to the attictrunk room.
There was nothing unusual about the tray of Laura's trunk except thelarge hole that Mabel had made by tumbling into it. But when the traywas lifted out and several layers of clothing were removed, it lookedvery much as if all the mysteries were solved. A fat little roll ofbanknotes, tied up neatly with a pink ribbon, a candy box full of silvercoins, several pairs of silk stockings marked with the names of thethree Seniors, every article of jewelry that had been reported missing,as well as some others that the careless owners had not yet missed.
It looked very much as if all the mysteries were solved]
"My opera glasses!" exclaimed Mrs. Henry.
"My real lace collar!" cried Mrs. Rhodes. "I suppose this _is_ Gladys'strunk?"
"Oh, certainly. Can't you smell the perfume? Nobody else uses this kind.Besides, her name is on the outside."
"Yes, that's right. Now, I wonder what we'd better do about this."
"We'll have to talk it over with Father. I'm afraid there's no doubtthis time."
"I'm sure there isn't," returned Mrs. Rhodes. "It's the de Milligan girlwithout question. I don't know why I didn't suspect her sooner."
"Well, _I_ didn't," said Mrs. Henry. "And she was right in my owncorridor. I'm awfully sorry about all this."
"I'd have been sorrier," returned the older woman, grimly, "if it hadbeen any other girl. I never did like this one."
When Laura was called into Doctor Rhodes's office and invited to explainhow all those things had found their way into her trunk, she appeared tobe very much surprised. She was _sure_ she didn't know. She said shesupposed that Sallie Dickinson had put them there, or if not Sallie, oneof the maids; or possibly Marjory Vale. Marjory was ever a deceitfulchild, much given to thievery. She herself had often warned the othergirls against Marjory.
Laura, standing with her back against the wall, seemed quite calm andunconcerned, except that she shifted her chewing gum from side to sidewith greater frequency than usual.
Doctor Rhodes had rather a terrible eye. Two of them in fact. He fixedthem both on Laura's unperturbed countenance and gazed so very sternlyat her that presently Laura began to quail. She gulped suddenly andswallowed her gum. And then she began to stammer excuses.
She liked pretty things. She couldn't resist taking things when it wasso easy to do it. Her fingers _liked_ to take things. She didn't alwayswant what she had taken. Sometimes she wished afterwards that she hadn'ttaken them. Her father was stingy and wouldn't give her expensivetrinkets. Her mother _would_ but didn't have the money. Her mother_wanted_ her to have nice things.
When did she take the things? Oh, at night sometimes. Her roommate,Victoria Webster, slept like a log and didn't miss her if she left theroom. Or daytimes, by getting upstairs ahead of the other girls it waseasy enough to dash into a room, grab a bracelet or a pin leftcarelessly about and hide it in her pocket. There were plenty of chanceslike that, when girls were so heedless with their belongings. Really, itwas the girls' own fault _much_ more than hers. Yes, she _had_ put thosebeads in Marjory's pocket while the dress was on Marjory's bed, and shehad placed that purse in Sallie's room. She _wanted_ people to thinkthey had taken them--it had seemed a clever thing to do--perhaps it wasn'tas clever as she had thought. But if Doctor Rhodes would just forgiveher _this_ time, she wouldn't touch another thing, _ever_.
"But what about Sallie?" questioned Doctor Rhodes, hoping to find alittle redeeming conscience in Laura. "And that other youngster,Marjory? How are _they_ to be cleared?"
"I don't care about _them_," returned vulgar little Laura,hard-heartedly. "They're just nobody. Marjory's folks don't amount toanything--just a queer old aunt in a small town--and everybody knowsSallie is just nothing--no folks or money or anything else. Now listen(Laura _always_ said 'Now listen'): _My_ father has made money in theautomobile business. He's richer--"
"Do you mean to say," demanded Doctor Rhodes, "that you'd actually bewilling to let those honest little girls rest under a suspicion thatthey don't deserve just because they happen to be poorer than you are?That you'd hide behind them--"
"I don't care anything about _them_," repeated Laura, stubbornly."They're nothing to _me_."
"However," returned Doctor Rhodes, "in simple justice, they will have tobe cleared--and they are _going_ to be cleared. _I_ care, if you don't,what happens to those children. It's my duty to protect my pupils--"
"Well, then," interrupted Laura, hopefully, "why not protect me?Folks'll forget all about it after awhile and _nobody'll_ be hurt sovery much. Aw, come on, now. Just forget it all."
"I'm going to tell the truth," declared Doctor Rhodes, who was findingLaura quite the most detestable child he had so far encountered. "Thereis no place in this school for a dishonest girl or for a girl with solittle kindness for her fellow pupils. There is such a thing as schoolspirit--"
"Well, anyhow," pleaded Laura, "just wait another two weeks. I'm notcoming back after Easter vacation; so you might as well wait until thenbefore you give me away, if you're going to do it. My mother has afriend that says he'll give me a good job in the movies; and that's whatI'd _like_ to do. You can give those things back to their owners afterI'm gone and say any old thing you like about me. It won't hurt me anythen."
"Wouldn't you _rather_ have people remember you with liking andrespect?" asked Doctor Rhodes, thoroughly shocked by Laura's hardenedconscience. "Have you no shame at all?"
Laura shrugged her shoulders, a trick she had perfected by watchingMadame Bolande. She tilted her chin and partly closed her eyes--to showher complete indifference to what people might think of her. She was notat all pretty when she did these things.
"I can see no reason for sparing you in any way," said Doctor Rhodes,coldly. "You may go to your room now and write for your mother to comefor you at once. If she isn't here inside of three days I shalltelegraph for her. Within five minutes after your departure, I shallstate on the bulletin board that Miss Gladys de Milligan has beenexpelled under circumstances that absolutely prove the innocence ofevery other pupil in this school."
All this was done. Untruthful Laura, making her farewells airily, toldher friends that she was merely going home a little ahead of time inorder to have a longer vacation for spring shopping and necessarydressmaking. She'd see them all again right after Easter, and bring backlovely presents for all of them. She borrowed Augusta's best middy scarfin order, she said, that her mother might select about a dozen like itfor her to give to the other girls. Augusta, of course, never saw eithercheap little Laura or the precious scarf again.
Laura was certainly not a nice child; but circumstances were againsther. She possessed a decidedly foolish, unladylike and not altogethertruthful mother so perhaps Laura's lack of good qualities was notentirely her own fault. With a really nice mother, she might have been areally nice girl; but Mrs. Milligan's daughter had very little chance.
During the last three days of Laura's stay, it seemed to Jean thatthings were not clearing up as rapidly as Miss Blossom had predicted.She wondered if, after all, nothing had been done for Marjory. Poorlittle Marjory, in spite of Jean's encouraging words, in spite of Mrs.Henry's reassuring smiles and Miss Blossom's hopeful glances, could seeno way out of her troubles. Hazel still drew her skirts aside whenMarjory passed and snippy little Lillian Thwaite still almost tippedover backwards in her efforts to turn her very small nose up inMarjory's presence (for sticking-up purposes, it was really a very poornose). And to Jean's surprise, there was Laura, apparently perfectlyunconcerned, going on just as she always had. Was nothing _ever_ goingto be done to clear Marjory and Sallie?
Notwithstanding many unusual kindnesses from her Lakeville friends--evenalways-hungry Mabel begged h
er to eat part of her favoritedessert--puzzled Marjory felt that the sky was dark above her and theworld a terrible place for little girls just her size. And then, quitesuddenly, Laura was whisked away by her mother, and Doctor Rhodes, chalkin hand and frowning prodigiously, was approaching the fateful bulletinboard.
You can imagine how, five minutes after Laura's going, the alwayscurious girls flocked to the bulletin board to see what Doctor Rhodeshad posted thereon. How eagerly they read the astonishing announcementand how their tongues wagged afterwards. How glad Marjory and Salliewere to have the mystery cleared away and how relieved the Lakevillegirls felt at having their precious Marjory emerge from the cloud thathad obscured her happiness for so long a time.
"Right after Gladys's mother came this morning," said Sallie, "there was_something_ going on in the office. It sounded very much like a veryangry woman telling Doctor Rhodes just what she thought of him; but ofcourse I didn't stay to listen--I _wanted_ to just awfully. But when Iwent back afterwards with the message I was waiting to deliver, the ladywas gone and poor Doctor Rhodes was mopping perspiration from hisforehead, although the room was quite cold. I guessed he'd been having aright trying interview with somebody. He looked perfectly wilted."
Mabel giggled. "I guess he had one all right if it was Mrs. Milligan. Weused to hear her in Lakeville."
But Jean watched the smoke of the train that was bearing tawdry littleGladys Evelyn de Milligan toward Chicago, and out of this tale, and wassorry.
"Poor foolish Laura," she breathed, "I'm so sorry you had to be you. Youwere smart enough to have made a perfectly lovely girl and I did havehopes of you."
"_I_ didn't," said Mabel, "and I'm glad I don't have to be polite to herany more. It's hard enough to be polite when you really _want_ to be.But when you're all impolite inside--"
"We know what you mean, Mabel," laughed Henrietta. "And now that I knowthe horrible secret you've been keeping from me all this time I amfilled with admiration for all four of you. I remember now that you toldme long ago about a horrid child named Laura; but I never dreamed thatshe and Gladys were the same person. And you, Mabel, with your 'impoliteinside' are a complete surprise. I didn't think you could keep asecret."
"Jean _made_ us," returned Mabel.
"Well," assured Henrietta, "I think you were right to give Gladys achance. It was noble of you to do it even if it hasn't turned out aswell as you expected. And isn't it great to have Sallie and Marjorycleared! And there's Hazel apologizing this very minute for being sonasty to Marjory about those blue beads."
"She's _lending_ them to Marjory," gasped Jean. "She's fastening themabout Marjory's neck."